It’s a tradition in our house to put our Christmas tree up during Thanksgiving weekend. We typically take it down *after* the first week in January – my birthday is January 8th and so we (I) try to have it up until at least then. Of course, there was that one year that Griffin’s special birthday wish was to have the tree up for *his* birthday (March 24th.) We did it, but for the most part the tree is gone by early January.

For obvious reasons we need to use an artificial tree. When Marc and I moved into our house 25 years ago, we bought a large, beautiful artificial tree. At the time, we were impressed with how it looked. It was taller than me, had large bottle brush needles and each branch had to be manually inserted into the tree base dependent on a color code. It was quite state-of-the-art for a tree.

Over the years, the tree has gotten musty and dusty – putting up the tree now required a good pre-dose of Claritin and a post-dose of Benadryl to calm the welts from needles scratching our skin.

But we persevered and continued using the same tree, because like a dog who pees on the floor, it’s still ours.

And we love it.

Until this year.

With the kids getting older, no one wants to help put the tree up anymore.

Our large tree became a sneezy chore that put a damper on the holidays.

So I made the executive decision to get a *new* smaller artificial tree. A fir tree with life-like needles.

The tree arrived last Friday and I had the kids set it up to see how it would look. It comes in three sections and when you insert each section into the base, the branches all fall down, like an upside down umbrella.

One, two, three – the tree was set up.

Of course we still need to fluff the branches, but it’s a lot less work than our old one. And take a look at these needles!

We didn’t get a pre-lit tree because everyone said that after a few years, you have to string lights anyway because the lights stop working. I’m okay with untangling and adding our lights each year, because, I mean some traditions must remain, right?

I love our new Christmas tree.

What does one do with an older (now vintage) musty, dusty tree? Griffin has laid claim to his “birthday tree” and he plans on taking it with him when he leaves the house.

Sure thing. It’s all packed up and ready to go… along with the Claritin and Benadryl. Many future happy Christmases sweetheart.

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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com

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